Straight From Kinshasa
Straight from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s vibrant capitol Kinshasa, comes this new supergroup made up of street legends ‘Coco’ Ngambali and ‘Theo’ Nsituvuidi, formerly of Staff Benda Bilili, who teamed up with Irish producer Liam Farrell (i.e. Tony Allen “Black Voices”), alias Doctor L, to form Mbongwana Star and release their debut album “From Kinshasa” via World Circuit Records (i.e. Buena Vista Social Club, Fatoumata Diawara). Fusing traditional African dance rhythms such as rumba and soukous with experimental electronic elements to create their very own blend of “space-afro-punk-rock-electro”, Mbongwana Star (mbongwana means ‘change’) are now set to revolutionise classical pre-conceptions about African music with their personal sound of the future. Following in the footsteps of their first video release “Malukayi (feat. Konono No.1)”, their latest video “Kala” – recently premiered via Nowness – is a pulsating wake-up call, featuring explosive dance moves in a shanty setting to an ambush of driving rhythms, frenzied guitar riffs and resonating vocal cuts. The future is here.
More posts
I Have No Everything Here
Two years ago, in the summer of 2013, the American Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, TV on the Radio) and his Italian wife Marilena Delli, a documentarian and photographer herself, embarked on an impressive journey to the southeast African country of Malawi to realise a musical human rights project in the local Zomba prison. The two had previously travelled to other countries including Rwanda, South Sudan, Palestine, Nairobi and Algeria in search [...]